QuickDraw 3D

In 1995 Apple introduced QuickDraw™ 3D, and

brought to personal computers, for the first time,
OS-integrated, real-time, workstation-class 3D
graphics. It provides a com-
prehensive, multiplatform
foundation for desktop appli-
cation, Internet, media title,
and game development.
The QuickDraw 3D toolkit
includes a complete geome-
try toolkit; shading and ren-
dering architecture; object-oriented, multiplatform file
format (3DMF); hardware abstraction layer (QD3D
RAVE) for plug-and-play hardware acceleration; input
device architecture; and a set of 3D interface guidelines.
The geometry, shading, rendering, input, and file I/O
architectures are extensible.
QuickDraw 3D is integrated with
QuickTıme, QuickTıme VR, and®

Apple Game Sprockets, giving

Apple’s 3DMF is an integral part of the future of 3D on the
Internet. As part of the VRML 2.0 specification for dynamic
developers unparalleled flexibility.
3D environments on the Internet, 3DMF will enable higher
compression, file streaming, and faster parsing of 3D objects
and virtual worlds across the Internet.
 QuickDraw 3D
QuickDraw 3D RAVE (Rendering Acceleration Virtual Engine)
enables developers to transparently access 3D graphics accel-
erator cards, while still providing exceptional rendering speed
with software-only systems. An integral part of the QuickDraw
3D API, RAVE can be accessed directly by developers who
want to leverage existing rendering engines but also gain
access to the hardware acceleration and optimized software
rasterizers of RAVE. It also provides third-party hardware ven-
dors with a means for shipping 3D acceleration hardware that
can plug-and-play with a variety of 3D applications.
With complex 3D models rapidly becoming the standard
in computer-based graphics, hardware-assisted 3D rendering
capabilities are increasingly a necessity for many computer
users. Apple offers the PCI-based QuickDraw 3D Accelerator
Card, which provides workstation-class 3D rendering capabili-
ties for users who require an easy-to-use and affordable desk-
top computer 3D graphics solution. The QuickDraw 3D
Accelerator Card accelerates Gouraud shading, texture map-
ping, transparency, and Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG).
A w a r d s
• MacUser 1995 Editor’s Choice Award (Eddy), Breakthrough Technology of the Year
• Macworld World Class Awards 1995, Best New Technology
• Byte Magazine 1995 Editors’ Choice Awards, Award of Distinction
• 1996 Discover Magazine Awards for Technical Innovation
Finalist in the Computer Software Category
Ordering Information for the QuickDraw 3D Accelerator Card
Order No. M4333LL/A (U.S.); M4333ZM/A (elsewhere)
For More Information
For demo files, parser code, complete specifications, a technical overview, and QD3D
RAVE SDK/DDK, visit the QuickDraw 3D home page at the Internet World Wide Web site:
http://product.info.apple.com/qd3d/
The best way to get started with QuickDraw 3D is to pick up the recently released
Addision Wesley book, Programming with QuickDraw 3D (ISBN 0-201-48926-0). A
comprehensive book on the Apple QuickDraw 3D API, it also comes with a CD-ROM
containing the complete QuickDraw 3D 1.0 software development kit. If you cannot find
this book in your local bookstore, you can order the book by contacting the Apple
Developer Catalog, Apple’s source for developer tools, at 1-800-282-2732, via e-mail at
ORDER.ADC@applelink.apple.com, or via the web at: http://www.devcatalog.apple.com/
Apple Computer, Inc. 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014 (408) 996-1010 http://www.apple.com/
©1996 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, AppleLink, the Apple logo, and QuickTime are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S.A. and other countries.
QuickDraw is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. All other products mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
Printed in the U.S.A. May 1996 L01861A
The Performance Advantages of QuickDraw 3D
• Your Complete Multiplatform 3D API. To meet your software and
hardware development needs, we’ve made QuickDraw 3D a com-
plete, multiplatform solution. The QuickDraw 3D Draw Context layer
ensures that roughly 99 percent of the API is identical, regardless of
platform. QuickDraw 3D supports retained, immediate, and mixed
modes. It also features a complete, extensible API and extensible file
format for exchanging 3D information, as well as a HAL for hardware
acceleration.
• Flexible, high-performance software-only rendering; plug-and-
play hardware acceleration. To provide maximum performance,
RAVE has been designed to provide minimum overhead between
the application and the drawing engine. QuickDraw 3D RAVE
(Rendering Acceleration Virtual Engine) supports features such
as diffuse color, texture mapping with full color texture modulation
and specular highlights, and texture compression. The QuickDraw
3D RAVE Texture Abstraction layer enables next-generation texture
compression algorithms such as YUV or wavelet encoding and vector
quantization. More advanced RAVE drawing engines may support any
or all of the following features:
— High-precision hidden surface removal (24 bits or more)
— Perspective-corrected hidden surface removal
— Texture mapping, fast and/or high quality
— Transparency blending, RGB or ARGB
— Anti-aliasing, fast and/or high quality
— Z-sorted rendering of non-opaque objects
— OpenGL support, which includes a collection of features such
as scissoring, multiple blending modes, area and line stipple
patterns, and more
• Excellent multiplatform data exchange for the desktop and
beyond. The 3D metafile format (3DMF) is a freely available open
standard that supports 3D data—not simply geometry, but all the
information that represents a particular view or scene, including high-
level geometry, lights, cameras, textures, animation sets, and custom
information. 3DMF is the widely accepted choice for the exchange
of 3D data. The format can be represented as either ASCII or binary,
and can be streamed. The binary representation of 3DMF is a core
part of VRML 2.0.
QuickDraw 3D Accelerator Card
• Accelerates QuickDraw 3D rendering to speeds as high as
12 times faster
• Renders 10 million trilinearly filtered, mip-mapped texture
pixels per second
• Renders up to 120,000 triangles per second
• Accelerates Gouraud shading, texture mapping, transparency, and
Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG)
• Continually enables trilinear filtering, mip-mapping, diffuse and spec-
ular lighting, producing very high-quality texture mapped images
• Uses high-performance SRAM memory to display up to 12 texture
maps in each open window
• Outputs an alpha channel, making it fast and easy to transfer images
between applications
• Offers hardware-accelerated per-pixel Z sorting for precise rendering
of transparent surfaces or CSG, regardless of submission order or
interpenetration
• Accelerates 3D rendering to all frame buffers in the system with a
single card